Piazzas of Santa Croce

The most striking features of Piazza di San Pier Maggiore are the three stone arches that stand today as the only visible remnant of a once-monumental church. These arches, built in the seventeenth century to support the older Romanesque…

Piazza dei Ciompi is defined by the Loggia del Pesce, a sixteenth-century open-air structure that sits at its northern end. This graceful, stone-arched building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in fifteen sixty-eight, but it did not…

The Scuola del Cuoio occupies space within the monastery complex of the Basilica of Santa Croce, set under fifteenth-century arched ceilings that feature Renaissance frescoes and the Medici coat of arms. Founded in nineteen fifty, the…

Piazza di Santa Croce is defined by the massive, rectangular space dominated at one end by the marble facade of the Basilica of Santa Croce. This large, flat expanse was originally created in the thirteenth century to accommodate the…

Piazza dei Cavalleggeri is defined by the heavy, imposing mass of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, which dominates the space as it opens toward the Arno River at the Lungarno alle Grazie. This area occupies land that once belonged to the…

Piazza Mentana is defined by the central bronze and stone monument that depicts two soldiers in a dramatic moment of combat. This sculptural group, created by Oreste Calzolari and inaugurated in nineteen oh two, shows one fighter aiming a…

Piazza dei Peruzzi is a small, irregular square in the historic center of Florence, defined by its unusual curved shape and the presence of a medieval tower. This layout follows the hidden curvature of an ancient Roman amphitheater, which…

The Piazza di San Firenze is defined by the expansive, monumental Baroque facade of the San Firenze complex, which spans the eastern side of this almond-shaped square. This complex—consisting of a church, an oratory, and former seminary…